All that Gender Confusion... And the aftermath

Gender stereotypes 4tL

Talk about things being blown out of proportion... (Just as planned...) So the all-girl's round robin thing has not only successfully garnered a hell lot of female(?) support, but a lot of uh, everything else as well (lulz)

Oh, like I'm one to talk (I've yet to go above self-linking and probably never will)

Anyways, since that post got an obscene amount of comments (OMG, more than 10! The tears cannot stop flowing T.T), I'm branching out here to write up some 'meaningful' replies and settle this whole issue here once and for all (so that I can go back to my 'usual' blogging 'schedule'. Yes, look forward for more man-love posts :P *oh there goes the readership*)

Queer Eyed Straight Guy said...

I can't believe I read through the whole thing hoping you'd reveal your gender.

THIS WHOLE POST IS A FUCKING COCKTEASE /rage

ps I know Nagato's real gender (:

issa-sa says: Oh, Shin, you are just too easy... XD (I'll trade you Nagato's secret for better buldge-concealing panties, you sick-ass. The eye surgery bill is going to YOU)

Taiyaki said...

Oh, so you're a trap! =P

usagijen said...

lulz. so are you a trap, issa?!

issa-sa says: Like we need another one around these parts?

Lupus said...

Yeah, gender shouldn't matter. We all know there are no girls on the internet anyway, right?

Off-topic, but since you mentioned pageviews, I suggest you move off blogger if you want to get any. It's ESPECIALLY HIGHLY recommended if you want to get comments, because everyone and their pet godzilla hates Blogger's captcha.

issa-sa says: Yes, the current Blogger is probably a poor choice in terms of functionality aesthetics and whatever else being a hald decent blogger requires. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wished that the commenting interface was more user friendly (I certainly wish I could edit my own respond comments because I'm a lousy typist) amongst other issues. Of course it's still possible to implement all the 'cool blog stuff' into a Blogger blog, just that it'll take a certain amount of know-how which I currently do not possess nor have the time to learnup right now. The most I can do is copy and paste random bits of code into my template like I did to get the 'continue reading' function on my posts, and even then it's still not very pleasing to the eye and gives me a hell lot of trouble when I publish posts sometimes T.T

However there's a chance I won't have to bother with all those troubles for long. As Randall hints in his comment,

Randall Fitzgerald said...

.... Also, don't worry. You won't be my only non-gender identifying blogger at dasaku. :D

[issa-sa:] ...yes I've also sold myself applied to join the dasaku network - because what better way to reaffirm this blog's sad status than with 'worthless' plastered onto it - literally! Also, if you've noticed, this is now officially the place where "Nothing is Incredible!" (Thanks to whoever it was in Yukan blog who came up with the description which I'm stealing =P - though I do wonder what exactly is being implied here... cos I sure know for a fact that Iim not making anything remotely incredible out of nothing here... -_-" ). Anyways, thanks to Randall for giving Tondemo Nothing the greenlight =D and if all goes well there'll be a new domain for me to tinker about with (and hopefully not a boatload of Wordpress issues to go with it)

Anonymous said...

Actually, yuri is for both girls and guys. Yuri Hime, the prominent yuri manga magazine, has only a 30% male readership. This statistics was mentioned in some interview. They made a special sister magazine, "Yuri Hime S," that's specially targeted to males (indicating that the main one isn't).

Erica Friedman said...

Okazu, while definitely by a woman, isn't manga focused, its just that there's more Yuri manga than anime. I also review Live-Action and novels, where they intersect Yuri.

issa-sa says: I probably came off as too general (Sorry, Erica if you found that I misrepresented your blog in any way). Actually the yuri for guys and yaoi for girls thing is rather rubbish imho, especially in the case of yuri which I've found to have a broader appeal since it has more roots to the emotional, while BL has a tendency to teh smex for the sake of pleasing the rabid fujoshi smex. There'll always be exceptions of course, but... another time.


And now to the real meat of this post:

Randall Fitzgerald said...

It is meant to be a big sack of elitist horseshit, just like all things that attempt to seperate one group out into another.

As a prime example, show me a single instance of a female blogger not being respected on the same terms as a male blogger in the community? Of all the women I host, I can't think of a single one who is thought of as less important that any given male blogger. "Sticking together" is stupid because no one is trying to divide the female bloggers. They're not a fucking minority.

issa-sa says: Poor Randall's receiving all the flack for smelling the potential 'elitism' :P

I seriously doubt anyone with any sense these days would want to start a group with elitism in mind, though I do think that we should be wary of that worst case scenario-like possibility of it turning out to be like that. Also I don't think this all-female collaboration was borne out of necessity for shelter, we've since advanced past the dark ages of women oppression thanks to efforts like Saiunkoku's Kou Shuurei (there I go mixing fiction and reality again...), certainly so in anime blogging where as Randall points out, there never was a dark age for women to begin with (minus that ABC April Fool's fiasco)

But really, girls got to do what girls got to do XD I don't believe 'sticking together to protect ourselves from the nasty boys' or "Guys Suck, let's band together to slice off those e-p3n0rS!!" were any of the original intentions of this endeavour. Girls may prefer to stick with 'their own kind' to discuss things relevant to themselves, as do guys, so guys start one of your own while Nagato and I decide which side to join!

Also there sure has been a hell lot of gal bloggers who've responded to the call, doubtless a good portion of them not exactly familiar names to most of us readers. Why there was probably a time back no too long ago that if you were asked to name 3 female bloggers your answer would probably be something along the lines of "Hinano, Hinano, and err... Hinano?" (no offence to everyone else, that was how my own narrow view of the blogosphere used to be) So in a way it's great that this round-robin calls some attention to the small time (gal) bloggers of our community. Now if we can have a "Small-time Male and Unidentified Bloggers of the Rebellion"...

usagijen said...

well this 'movement' is not meant to set this elitist distinction between guys and girls, it just so happens that there's no virtual community which unites female bloggers together at the moment (unlike the guys who have their #ab channel), so they can talk about a wide range of topics, especially certain topics which they'd rather discuss among fellow girls. I mean, won't it be better to discuss things like "women's bias against so and so", with fellow women? something like that...

blissmo said...

Between you and me, I'm not so into the all girls thing since i dont mind about the gender issue thing. hey, most of my time guys talk to me about "guy stuff" and i just normally play along cos thats wat i do... ...and ive always thought that guys are better than girls most of the time, which is probably a bad thing cos everyone lives in equality?

issa-sa says: In real life especially, there are subjects that girls will only speak of to girls and guys to fellow guys (well, if they can help it). Only a major dickhead of a guy would walk into a room full of females and announced "I JUST HAD THE BEST WET DREAM!" and not even the worst bimbos would want to describe their 'once a month experiences' intimately with a pack of hungry wolves (XD) as crude examples. The round-robin may very well serve as a 'slumber party' type gathering of gal anime bloggers who may be tired of 'playing along' with 'guy stuff' since that's what you have to do to fit in in this otakusphere.

Nagato said...

Hmm well, I was inclined to label you as female. I guess that's unfair since I've taken pains to avoid being labelled myself. xP

@ Shin: Ha, you wish! >_>

issa-sa says: No worries ;D (And for the record, I thought you were a guy... and that Shin is a girl masquerading as a guy masquerading as a newhalf =P)

blissmo said...

...but i also originally thought u were a girl!

issa-sa says: What's stopping you from continuing?

Os said...

Wait. Crap! Issa is a male?! I thought it was one of those cute girls who has a raspy voice that sounds like a male... I jest. I knew.

issa-sa says: If I was a girl In real life, I'm really like Ogiue (with worse hair). Or I could just be saying that to get a fan.

lanie-emon said...

All of this is making me dizzy, lol. Oh well, got nothing against the female blogger circle, really.

issa-sa says: Ditto on both points.

Caitlin said...

It keeps eating my comment :(

But I'm sure someone will come up with the female version of circlejerk soon.

issa-sa says: Why am I thinking Dango Daikazoku's circle of dangos...

Os said...

You know, with all these posts, I dont know whether to take this seriously or not. I've been thinking the entire time: "No one's really stopping you for chiming in with the rest of the ladies anyways. I could post on the same subject if I wanted..."

Fight the power... brother?

issa-sa says: Nothing is going to stop the rest of the blogosphere who aren't officially part of the round-robin from posting on the same topics when it eventually comes to it, in fact this will most certainly happen since ideas are scarce nowadays knowing this blogosphere =P I'm sure that there was zero intention of excluding bloggers not in the round robin from posting their own opinions -in fact the opposite should be true- once the ladies have something to say about something, that should prompt everyone else to give their 2 cents. That's Spiral Power at work for you!


And last but not least...

Marmot said...

HEY RANDALL GIMME SUMMA WHAT YOU'RE SMOKING BABE ♥

SERIOUSLY NO RANDALL LISTEN TO ME: I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU HAVEN'T FIGURED IT OUT YET. GOD YOU FUCKING LOSER. WE FEMALES ARE BANDING TOGETHER BECAUSE WE ARE PLANNING ON HAVE A GIANT LESBIAN ORGY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE SO FAR REMOVED FROM REALITY THAT YOU DIDN'T EVEN SEE SOMETHING SO OBVIOUS!!!!

issa-sa says: If there's anyone who did sign up for the round-robin who isn't 'what you claim you are', then I suggest you pull out quickly lest Marmot finds out you've been tainting her orgy XD Shin will gladly accept you though ;)


Finally, I do believe that it shouldn't really matter what the blogger's gender is (unless he/she writes in a way hat calls attention to it in a relevant fashion. And as Sasa says, we're all either internet guys or internet girls online, so that 'gender' should be the one that you pay attention to if you really must), so long as the material and writing style appeals to the reader, that's as fine a job as a blogger can do really ;)

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Wait, so CAN I or can I NOT join the Rebellion?

A while back usagijen posted on Kure-nai about a scene that launched me into a mini rage-filled comment (similar to my recent one on Toshokan Sensou 6). Now, what was interesting to me was her eventual response to it:

YEA, I GO... girl?

The funny thing is, I don't ever recall discussing my gender over the blogosphere since one of the things I naively tend to think is that it really shouldn't matter what ones chromosomes are when it comes to discussing the animu and whatnot. You know, besides determining what type of stereotypes you're expected to conform to/break of course. So being a male blogger probably means you have "fap fap fap" plastered on a good number of your posts, while being female probably means fangirl rage is a typical recurrence on yours. (Hence why usagijen automatically assumed - correctly?- that I'm a girl) But seriously, do any of these 'distinctions' matter really?


Oh wait, silly me, apparently they do.

So there’s this all female blogger round-robin thing going on, with the purpose of strengthening sisterly bonds with all the female bloggers out there in this crassly male dominated otakusphere. Spearheaded by itsubun, sasa, and usagijen, it is in hopes that all bloggers of the fairer gender consider being a part of this endeavour to emasculate the blogosphere once and or all!. Personally, I do like the idea of the Female Bloggers of the Rebellion because I tend to have a raving feminist streak myself (plus this collaboration would have almost zero chances of being termed a 'circlejerk' XD )

In fact, I'm quite eager to join myself, why usagijen has even stated in a comment that she hopes I’ll hop on the bandwagon:

And honestly, I'd be honoured to... but there’s one problem, jen:

How sure are you that I’m qualified gender-wise?

Just for fun (warning: everything I've said thus far has been truthful, but I give no such guarantee for anything from this point onwards), here are some points to consider:


1) This is how my bookshelf (well, the part of it that’s actually holding books now) looks like currently. Since I’m a frugal bastard (bitch?), besides the crack English book which I got from my friends (really, it's a hoot XD), everything you see there I got at second hand bookstores/flea markets or got free from the recycling centre etc. which explains the incompleteness of the sets (NANA’s still ongoing, of course, but it's going to take me a while to read these 15 volumes anyhow).

(And ohbtw, saving up for the entire Fruits Basket manga series next)


2) A teaser for posts to come:

-The Magic of Siscon Hatsunejima
-So I finally finished watching… Kyou Kara Maou (Seasons 1 & 2)
-So I finally got round to watching: Aka-chan to Boku
-An Overdue Overview on OoFuri
-There's something about Watarase Jun...
-Mizuki Nana and Why Allison & Lillia is Awesome
-Allison & Lillia and Why Mizuki Nana is Awesome
-Why Everyone Should Watch Animal Yokocho

Btw, only one of those was made up for the sake of this post


3) The actual Issa on Animal Yokocho is male.

Well, at least I think he is. It’s hard to tell with animals that don’t wear pants.


4) I watched true tears and Clannad because they had cute girls and girls love cute things!!

(I watched Air because it had dinosaurs.)


5) Read the first (and then the second) point of this post on Furu Anime Panikku. Now consider the (sad) truth that this blog has never gained more than 200 views in a day before T_T

If it's also a matter of interest, the most viewed posts on this blog so far:
Surprise, surprise...

6) If you subscribe to the yuri is for guys and yaoi for girls stereotype, then note that both Nagato and I blog Junjou Romantica (Taiyaki too, while I'm at it. I've stopped doing it on a regular basis though, and Are-Are gets more hits than I'll ever hope to achieve). Is that an 'ahah' enough for you? But let's add this blog and this blog into the equation (though they're manga focused). See, the bigger picture?

(Also, let's not forget a TRUE MAN who dares to do hardcore MAN ON MAN posts XD)


7) Finally (and probably the only most useful point): Why would I even bother with this post if was actually a girl? ;D


Confused? So am I.

(Perhaps like Nagato, I’m really just reluctant to participate in something that might ruin the 'mystery' of my true gender in real life… Why, half my regular readers (all two of you) will probably never come here ever again once they find out that I’m actually...)

In conclusion, let’s just say that there’s a part of me that’s very ready to join the round-robin thingy, but part of me that’s very afraid of Hinano’s (and now their fearsome gatekeeper blissmo XD) threat against those attempting to infiltrate the sisterhood XD Now as far as I can gather, the gender-confused do not seem welcome in the group currently (bummer), but whatever you girls decide to write on in the future, don’t be surprised if this little panda starts ripping you all off following suit to add my own 2 cents’ worth on the subject(s) - since I always seem to be at a loss at what to write that isn’t these lame crack posts anyways =P

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A question weighing on my mind right now...

If you had the main cast of Nabari no Ou on one hand, and the main cast of Special A on the other... which would be heavier?

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A Self-Indulgent Self-Reflection Post by a Self-Centred Blogger

So it's been 2 months into this anime blogging foray of mine. Whoopee. I'm only a day away from boarding a plane for Osaka, and in between being nervous as hell about it and finalizing packing, I'm still GIVING IT ALL I'VE GOT trying to catch up with the Winter Season finales before Spring comes in full force. Unfortunately, that hasn't amount to much when I'm still waiting for subs and being a naturally slow watcher, so this isn't the Final Winter Season Impression post I thought of doing before I leave. Instead, I thought I'd just share what I've learnt about myself as an anime blogger over the past two months.

And in a rather shoddy attempt to make this look more like an organized post than a spur of the moment one, I've decided to number them. Oh, what do you know, it's now a Top 10 post! Well, in no particular order:

1) I take too much time on posts. Some of these take actual hours to do and it's often I actually spend more time here than actually watching anything in a day. Even something like this will probably take me a good hour. Or three. *sigh* I'll probably have to adopt a less is more stance later when things like studies come back into play.

2) Ever constructed a decently intelligent post in your head only to have it completely wiped out of your memory once you sit down and start staring at a 'Create New Post' screen? This is actually an everyday affair for me, and most of the hours spent on 'blogging' that I take is mostly used up trying to pick up the fragments of ideas "I could've sworn I had a minute ago...". The end result? Half baked ideas being presented in a half baked fashion for the critical masses to see. Or ignore. Thankfully there are commenters who fill in the blanks where my one-sided rants often fail to touch upon.

2.5) Note to self: Start scribbling thought on paper

3) Wait a minute, this blog's actually has readers and the occasional comment now??? *pinches self* A Big Thanks goes to AnimeNano (and again hung for listing Tondemo Nothing on the site) for this (I'm guessing I'm not the only one who doesn't actually subscribe to specific blogs and just read posts from any blog that has an eye-catching enough title :P)! Oh, and also to the random people who Google for random things like 'manly Japanese' (trying not to think what the actual context is) who end up here as well. Well, I suppose I should also apologize to this blog's irrelevance to most of those searches. It happens =P

4) There are times I let my somewhat pessimistic outlook on life affect my blogging. Trying to be funny in posts (and failing) doesn't quite make up for that.

5) I need to be reeducated on the proper use of emoticons and memes. ORZ (Assuming there's a 'proper' way? :P)

6) I have a tendency to reference too many other anime and seiyuu in posts, especially when I run dry on content. Wish I could be as 'subtle' about it as that SHAFT show with Nonaka Ai or that one with the butler that's getting another season...

7) I seem to reference other blogs a whole lot too. Not as much as Author of course.

8) Not only am I slow to the point that I may conveniently 'lose track' of what I'm watching at times, the same happens with what I blog about. Oh and btw, Haruhi won March Madness on Derailed by Darry after all. Surprised?

9) I fail at episodic blogging. Takes too much time for me anyways.

10) Finally, I can't believe I've not done a single actual post on Animal Yokocho itself!!! For a start, I'll just lead you to hung's post and this one from Yuribou. And Matthew seems to be far far ahead than where the subs have stalled early last year... (Animal Yokocho concluded in what? 2004/5 ?)

In conclusion, I'm obviously still at a learning stage (and will likely be stunted at this stage for as long as I continue doing this) when it comes to blogging and there's certainly much to copy learn from other more established anime bloggers out there, blah blah blah. I seriously doubt I'll ever be as witty or funny or intelligent or scathing or bitchy (in a fun way :P) or influential as some of them are, nor will I ever be involved in dorama like the whole ABC fiasco (god forbid anyways). But you know what, it really doesn't matter as long as there's fun to be had on this side of the trapdoor, and as long as I'm still watching anime and reading people's views on them, I might as well be tossing in my two cent's worth.

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Whatever happened to "And they lived happily ever after"?

Bad End for true tears?

Question: Why is it that picture books that pop up in anime tend to become utterly depressing? Aren't these books supposedly meant for young children who ought to be sheltered from the horrible horrible things in life (At least till they enter their emo teen years)? Wouldn't it be bothersome for the adults to explain to their young impressionable children who are probably sobbing their little hearts out that, yes, sometimes life can be cruel to the chickens/dangos/fictional fantasy creatures of the world blah blah blah... Or was I totally mislead and the truth is that these books are really for depressed adults who are too lazy to read something with too many words and no pictures? Is it a ploy by publishing companies to milk tears out of people without going through the hassle of making a visual novel with sad girls and hoping that a certain production company in Kyoto animates it?

Shouldn't they be watching stuff like Animal Yokocho and Zenryoku Usagi instead? =P

(Highly irrelevant post inspired by Shinichiro's first draft of "Raigomaru to Jibeta no Monogatari" from true tears. Other depressing picture book ideas can be referenced from Chobits (a bit too cryptic for the average child, considering it was written for a robot) and School Rumble Nigakki. I don't exactly recall if the picture book in Kimi ga Nozomu Eien was actually depressing in any way, but it sure didn't do Haruka much happiness... And don't get me started on novels like The Dog of Flanders and Chihiro's novel in ef...)

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Shigofumi 3

Personal random otaku fantasy: To don a Japanese school uniform and have a lunch of bread and juice on the rooftop of a Japanese school building. (And not be arrested by the authorities)

*spoilers for Shigofumi ep 3, so for those who plan to watch it, you’ve been warned. For those who DON’T plan on watching or just aren’t into anime at all? Better yet, feel free to read on* *Anything else you need to know about Shigofumi: here*

3 schoolboys gather on the school’s rooftop one day, and one of them (the protagonist of the episode whose name eludes me and at the moment is not the point of interest) decides to pop the question: “Have you ever thought of dying?” Specifically he referenced jumping in front of an incoming train at the station. After some quick replies – both say “No,” rather easily, though in one case, the boy they call ‘Sen-chan’, the answer seems to be not too final… – the subject is dropped, and our protagonist is left with his ponderings to himself.

Later the day, the protagonist finds out that Sen-chan had just jumped off the roof of an apartment building. This being Shigofumi after all, poor Sen-chan did not survive.

And then there were 2.

Speculation is rife over the reason of Sen-chan suicide. Bullying in school, abuse at home, all the usual suspects raised by the local media (a media with nothing else to report on it seems, with all the fuss they kick up over the incident) but none seem to fit the bill here. It doesn’t help that the boy didn’t leave a suicide note – thank God there’s always the Shigofumi!

Sen-chan’s dad is so distraught over the unexplained death of his son, that he decides to take Sen-chan’s classroom hostage! (The actual scene looks rather forced since it’s not revealed what kind of weapon the man used for this coercion – perhaps this was what was altered by the production in view of yet another ‘recent event in Japan’?) He starts questioning around the terrified class for a reason for the suicide, but elucidates nothing, even from his son’s ‘close friend’, the protagonist.

Just as things start to get a little too melodramatic, comes the intervention of our real main character Fumika, who barges into the situation to deliver Sen-chan’s final words from the afterlife to our protagonist. And before Sen-chan’s dad is able to do something really damaging to the protagonist guy while trying to snatch the letter from him, the police enter to subdue him, so he has to settle for protagonist reading the letter aloud to him.

So what really drove poor Sen-chan over the edge, literally? His last letter seemed to be written almost whimsically, and tells not the sob tale of an abused child or bully victim, but of a youth so disenthused by life that while 'hanging out' at the railings on the rooftop, he ponders what it might be like to actually take the jump (like discussed with the protagonist at the start of the story)... And well, as they say, curiosity killed the cat.

He compares it to choosing yakisoba bread for lunch - a choice out of the usual one might make on a whim. Not that he was actually contemplating death at the time - just the thought of 'not living'.

Sen-chan's dad cannot believe that that his own son would say such things. However, our protagonist of the week not only does believe it, he feels he can finally understand Sen-chan as the friend that he was supposed to be (something which left the boy confused for most part of the episode).

Personal Thoughts: Okay, this episode required a bit more suspension of belief. Mainly on the media's over-sensationalization of Sen-chan's death (in the episode, we see waves and waves of news reports as well as a clip of a 'talk show' where some adults try to discuss the psychology of the case, *snort*), and more importantly Fumika's all-important entrance into the classroom where she not only holds the hostage-taking dad at gunpoint to deliver the letter to boy protagonist, but does so in full view of the already terrified classmates who wont be forgetting the day all too soon. Strange enough that the Shigofumi concept was accepted with next to no explanation by protagonist boy, but bigger point is, as the deliverer of letters from the dead, wouldn't the job description require a little more discretion?

(But it's only 3 episodes in, so they'll probably explain later how Fumika's staff whose name I've yet to remember can also erase the memories of irrelevant civilians, or some convenient explanation to that effect. Well, maybe.)

But I'm not here to nitpick on those details. In fact I've left out most of the more imporant details in the episode (important in the grand scheme of the series but not to this post in particular) since I was really only interested in discussing the following point.

Oddly enough, the one thing that I won't consider too farfetched in this episode was Sen-chan's reason for his jump, as vague as he was in explaining it (or my own fuzzy recollection may be to blame). Here we have a seemingly average high school student who isn't necessarily depressed or tormented by his life, yet he chooses out of it for what he chalks up to be a casual whim.

And well, it's obvious that though he has family and 'friends' (term used loosely), he doesn't view them to be substantial enough ties to what can be surmised as a mundane life.

I don't know if it's just me, but there are times when I realize that yes, I have people in life whose connections I have I truly appreciate, and these are what really 'tie' me to this life of mine... But scary thing is, remove all that, and what is there left?

I'm sure most people will still have their own personal motives in life, things they want to accomplish for themselves, things that will keep them going. But what of those who are still searching (or in my case, hoping something falls out of the sky and onto my lap =P), who are currently drifting at a stage where possibilities still abound, but perhaps confusion - or in this case, apathy - stalls the way to any real progress. What if you really feel that your life at present, was stagnant?

Then, perhaps like Sen-chan, you please yourself by choosing yakisoba bread for lunch?

A scary thought? And I'm supposedly a cynical abhor-er of melodrama.

Fortunately anyways, life nowadays is full of distractions to discourage the regular mind from being overly philosophical. In my case, though I may still be in the limbo-like stage described above, I know I still have my self-escapist fantasies in the realm of anime - and yes, real life connections to keep me going gaga, *phew*. Now I'll just have to promise myself that posts like these don't crop up too often :P

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